Well now it’s December I can fully immerse myself into the Christmas Spirit and stop shouting at Andy while he is subconsciously whistling Christmas songs ‘STOP IT, IT’S STILL NOVEMBER!’. I have told anyone that will listen about my outrage that on November 26th in Basildon’s Shopping Centre, the queue for Santa’s Grotto was ridiculous. I don’t want to get in the mood too early or I will end up utterly fed up by the time we get there!

So I turned over my calendar on my desk to find a picture of Woody from Toy Story with a little bit of holly and a nice American caption ‘Happy Holidays’.* My advent calendar (I’m very grateful to Andy for saving me from grumpyness and nipping to Sainsbury’s yesterday to get me one) is ‘Merry Christmas! From Peppa and George (Pig)’ – coincidentally the same advent calendar as my 4 and 3 year old nieces. I’m (we’re) surrounded by all this snow and sparkle covered festivity, with very little reference to the true meaning of Christmas. My housemate Karen’s parents bought us a little advent calendar card which we opened the first door of yesterday and there was a picture of a lady dressed in blue…with ‘Mary’ written next to it. It’s a sad time where on the picture of the nativity you have to write the names of the characters in case people don’t know.

More and more Jesus is squeezed out of Christmas – so what are we doing about it this year? How are we making sure we are focusing on the right things this Christmas? How are we not getting so sucked in to the glitz and extras that we forget to communicate the real meaning of Christmas with those around us?

We’ve managed to get tickets to be in the audience of Michael McIntyre’s Christmas Comedy Roadshow, filmed on 13th December, on air on Christmas Day. (I’m VERY excited!) So you may possibly see me on TV on Christmas Day. That got me thinking, if I could wear a T-Shirt with anything written on it that potentially millions of people could see on Christmas Day, what would I want it to say? What one thing would I want to say about what I believe Christmas is really about?

I don’t have answers yet, but take a second to think about it! Viz-A-Viz Ministries have produced the More To Christmas DVD in a card – a great conversation starter to send to friends/families/neighbours – featuring real stories of real people and how God has changed their lives. For more information visit www.vizaviz.org

 
*I was pleased the other day whilst listening the Vernon Kay on BBC Radio 1 that as he read out a text containing the word ‘Xmas’ he said ‘No, not Xmas, Christmas, please keep the Christ in Christmas.

I’d love to hear your comments of how you are ‘keeping the Christ in Christmas’ this year.

Had an awesome time in Dover, my first Adult Mission. We travelled to Dover on Friday morning, arrived about 10.45 and were greeted by lots of lovely people who helped us unload. They had clearly put loads of effort into planning the event and had put up posters and balloons and pictures on the walls and bits and pieces in the foyer. We set up and at 12.30 were provided with a yummy ploughmans. We then spent the afternoon finishing set up, soundchecking (various funny things which we will hold against certain people involving mics being on mute and altered frequencies) and rehearsing. At 5pm we were treated to a 3 course meal: Mackeral and Salad; Chicken wrapped in bacon with potatoes, veg and mushroom sauce; and a fruit tart with cream; all of which was very nice!! Conversation wasn’t so pleasant, after discovering half a pigeon behind the van, and convinced Mike did it on purpose, there was many a squished animal story being told!! We had a prayer meeting before the event started and then it all kicked off around 7pm. The running order went something like this:

It was the first time we had performed Jessica’s Story and it went really well. I really enjoyed it and wasn’t too nervous which was great! I was a little nervous about the monologue at the end, not only was it emotional but i was carrying a candle and had to go down a step and then back up by only the light of this candle! All went well though and i didn’t feel nervous at all. It was good to chat to a couple of people afterwards too.

We went back to our hosts, I was staying with a lovely lady called Barbara who lives by herself in a 2-bed flat. She looked after me very well!!

Saturday was Golden Years (aimed at people 55+), we arrived about 10am (to hear stories of people’s mornings: Rachel having to force the bathroom door open at her host’s to rescue Joyce who was trapped inside, Dan almost getting into the wrong car….the kind of things that were brought up many a time over the weekend and will continue to be in jokes no doubt!) to change the staging slightly, soundcheck and rehearse. We then had a lovely lunch of soup and rolls and crisps and really good cookies! Conversation somehow got to our ideal houses and bouncy castle rooms, bubble wrap rooms, light rooms and LAN party rooms. Hmmm…. The event started at 2.30 and went something like this:

The sketch we did was as Bill and Ben, the flowerpot men and seemed to go down quite well! We’ve hardly ever got it right in rehearsals but managed on the stage! Rachel did a monologue which was brilliant and I read the poem Footprints. After a slight struggle with getting soundcues right in rehearsals, it was spot on in the event, and sounded great!!

We had sandwiches and cakes and tea after and then set up for the sunday service. Got back to Barbara’s about 6pm, and she had made a pork casserole with carrots, sprouts and mash and nectarines for afters. We then chatted for a couple of hours and she told me lots of interesting things! I went to bed fairly early as the day seemed to take it out of me!

Got to the church about 9.30am and soundchecked and made sure everything was ready for the service. We prayed before hand and then the service started at 10.30. We caused slight controversay by holding the service in the hall not the church building itself, but this meant we could have all of our equipment and we didn’t have to pack down and re set up! The service went something like this:

The sketch we did was a modern day Prodigal Son, where I played Suzie the girl who left home and got into bad company and returned home thinking her parents wouldn’t want to have anything to do with her. For this part I had really messy hair, thick smudged black eyeliner and smudged lips – great fun! Apparently I looked quite rough, I got offended saying I always have my makeup like that! After that I had about 6mins to clean off my makeup, get changed, do my hair and re-mic before being back on stage looking respectable for the Bible reading!! Anyway all went well and people seemed to enjoy the service and the whole weekend. The food afterwards was amazing!!! That church definitely knows how to feed people well!

We started packdown at 1pm and by 2pm we were loaded and on our way. Until smoke started coming out of the speaker and we had to stop and Dan discovered the fuse for the heating had well and truly melted! Journey back was good, wet but good! We unloaded at the office and re-loaded for Wednesday and I was home about 4.30. Had a fairly lazy rest of the day and just about to plan Kids Club for Friday as I’m being dragged willingly back to lead it! Mum and Dad are coming to see me tomorrow so looking forward to that!

Lay in today!!!! But i was awake at 6.38…doh! Rachel picked me up at 8.55am and we picked up Ollie from his house and Ami from the station. Off we went to the Barn. Yes this truly is an amazing place in amazing grounds with lots of random statues. Inside are lots of very random and distracting pictures!

So there are 3 retreat days in a year where all of the Viz-a-Viz Ministries people meet. So this was the first time I met the 2nd years and the church based people. We started off with some Worship and then a kind of introduction to all the various ministries of Viz-A-Viz which was realy interesting, they do so much!! Found out plans for a youth event INSIDE chelmsford cathedral involving skate ramps! We had a time of prayer in twos, and later on walking around praying for all the various ministries and people. Lunch was at 1pm by which time everyone was starving and our stomachs were rumbling loudly, especially during the quiet times! Then the afternoon was a little education on ‘More To Life’, and we discussed a question, well I wrote all the notes while everyone else watched and talked about other things! We had a time of worship and communion and then Kathryn (who has done 2 years with Optimum, and is about to go off to Spurgeons college to train to be a baptist minister) spoke which was really good. The chairs were really squeaky which was especially awkward/amusing when everyone sat down ‘remaining in a state of worship’ *SQUEAK, SHUFFLE, CREAK*

Then a group of us (La Roche – Taste’s DJ, Matt – Taste’s Drummer, SammyJ (Gammy) – Taste’s Bassist, Keel – Taste’s Techie, Claire – Taste’s lead vocals, Rachel, Ollie, Ami and Jenni (second year optimum students), Dan – techie, Paul (not sure who he was!) and me) went bowling. It was fabulous fun, involved me getting laughed at, ridiculed and entirely surrounded by the taste boys who thought it was hilarious! Randomly you only give one shoe in when you get your bowling shoes…so of course there would be one who lost their one shoe they had to look after…Dan! I got two strikes in a row – my moment of glory but then it kinda went downhill, though i beat a few boys first time round

Came home and had chilli and rice. Settled down to watch Hollyoaks on E4+1…steph, what were you thinking?!?! Watched ‘Lost in Austen’ on ITV1 which was actually pretty good!

Bedtime now….

*1 Corinthians 3:5-9 ‘What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.’*